Ascent Trip Report

After the Sierra Club Base Camp at Fifth Lake seven of us joined to climb Split Mountain from a camp at Red Lake. Yesterday, August 15,we arrived at the trailhead on Red Mountain Creek in early morning, well before the heat of the day, after spending the night in Big Pine. It took us about four hours to make our way up to Red Lake on the unmaintained "fisherman's" trail requiring considerable bushwhacking through the willows along Red Mountain Creek. We spent a leisurely afternoon in camp anticipating thundershowers, which never appeared, and playing Hearts.

About 5:00 this morning we were startled by loud greetings from Jack Graham, who had somehow managed to find his way to Red Lake in the middle of the night. Initially he didn't think he could join us, but had a late reprieve and was obviously eager to join us on our climb of Split Mountain, one of the three remaining 14,000' peaks in the U.S. he hasn't climbed.

Jim Koontz and I opted for an earlier departure than the others. We headed north from Red Lake, across Split Mountain's NE shoulder, and into an upper basin, then ascending to the saddle between Split Mountain and Mt. Prater,and finishing with a slog up easy. open talus slopes to the summit. After time on top Jim and I descended to the Split/Prater saddle and climbed Mt. Prater before returning to camp. Ian and Cricket did likewise, while Jack, Doug, and Viv weren't interested in Mt. Prater and returned directly to Red Lake.